The Duck that Keeps on Giving by guest bloggers--Anne and Chris James

We ordered a duck from Our Perfect Farm for Christmas dinner. It was delivered right to the house (just like Santa, but appropriately early).

I found a recipe in a Middle Eastern cookbook my daughter gave to me. She is living in Morocco. COVID has kept us distanced for a year, preparing a meal with Moroccan-style spices from a gift she gave me seemed a nice way to include her in our dinner. The duck was stuffed with rice mixed with nuts, ginger, onions, and golden raisins and was rubbed with a spice mix of cinnamon, paprika, cardamom, nutmeg, turmeric, salt, and pepper.

The rice-stuffed duck ready to go into the oven.

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There was a date compote to go on top. Tabbouleh and a pomegranate & cucumber salad filled out the meal. It was delicious!

Duck with compote, rice stuffing, and carrots with cumin and preserved lemon.

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We had two meals and the meat is gone, but not the duck … it will keep on feeding us in the weeks and months ahead. Because, OF COURSE, we saved the fat … looking forward to roasting potatoes in that duck fat someday soon.

And …. I always make stock from chicken and turkey carcasses, but was not so sure about duck … would it be too greasy? Epicurious.com to the rescue. Found a recipe that had us roast the carcass for an hour and then roast the veggies in the fat from the carcass … it all cooks for hours and hours and is rich tasting and not at all fatty. The recipe calls for more than one carcass, but we just scaled down the water (left the veggie amounts the same).

We now have 13 cups of amazing duck stock in the freezer that we will turn into soups, stews, maybe a cassoulet?? Yum!!

OK, the fat and stock are not so photogenic, but they will be delicious!

Thanks, Our perfect Farm, for our perfect Christmas feast and (literally) fat for the larder!

Anne and Chris James

Tacoma